By Dean Aubrey Caratiquet

In yesterday’s (Nov. 27) inaugural meeting of the newly established Murang Pagkain Supercommittee, House Ways and Means panel chair Joey Salceda emphasized that their goal is to bring rice prices as close as possible to the President’s aspiration of P20 per kilo.

“A big part of that is cutting down excessive middleman and cartel profits. [The landed] price of imports—including movements in world prices and the tariff reduction implemented last July—has declined by around 24.9 percent year on year. But consumer retail prices are up 9.0 percent over the same period. It’s puzzling and an unmistakable sign of shenanigans in the rice trade sector,” he added.

Salceda explained that the superpanel aims to bring down the prices of rice, which account for as much as 22 percent of total expenditures by poor households, and food in general, which takes up as much as 54 percent of total spending by low-income families.

“That’s why we are looking into rice price manipulation over the past ten or so years, starting with the rice price spike in 2012–2013, up to the price manipulation in 2016–2018, to learn from what happened, and to see whether the same network of smugglers and cartels are still in the game,” the Albay Representative added.

The food-supercommittee chair also dished out a strong warning to profiteers, hoarders, smugglers, cartelists, and regulatory patrons that were involved in rice price spikes that occurred between 2016–2019 and more recently in 2024, stressing that the government would not stop in enforcing related laws, catching the crooks and prosecuting them for their deeds.

Likewise, Salceda reiterated the measures that the government has put in place to stabilize rice prices in the country, such as the tariff reduction that helped reduce the farmgate price in Central Luzon to P20.02 and resulted in achieving rice prices closer to P30.

“Add to that, rice imports have already swelled to 4.1 million metric tonnes, an excess of 200,000 MT from the projected import needs of the country this year. I suspect that there is already speculation going on, especially since traders know that the tariff reduction is not forever,” the House Ways and Means panel chair stated.

“By Christmas, we will have initial recommendations for the President. Not yet the Committee Report, but we hope something that PBBM can use to crack down on price abuse. Pamasko man lang sa taumbayan,” he added. (with report from Mela Lesmoras/PTV News)-iro

Published Date: November 28, 2024